the light finally went on

[tambarika]

i have been competing regularly for about 5 years now. while i love my 1911, i have been using my Springfield XD for the last few competitions because the sight alignment was much more natural than with my 1911.

i decided i needed to figure out why. i typically break my shots with the 1911 without accurate sight alignment, and it has been driving me crazy. being ambidexterous, i can shoot either hand strong. i am naturally a lefty but decided to switch to my right hand to see if my NPA changed. it did. all of a sudden my sights came up in perfect alignment.

after examining my wrists, grip, etc, i noticed i had more flexibility in my right wrist than my left. also, i had been using a mainspring housing with a decided 'bump' to it. the combination of the angled housing and slightly less flexible left wrist caused me to keep breaking my shots high.

i replaced the ms housing with a flat one, and no my NPA is perfect -- no more breaking high.

this took me at least 5 months to figure out.

[RH45]

Good for you!!

[Pittbug]

It's so nice to figure stuff out. I've also often wondered if I should also switch to shooting with my left hand...

[Duane Thomas]

That's one of the great things about the 1911: we can change the sides and back of the grip to fit our hand. Want a wider or thinner grip? Change the grip panels for thinner or thicker stocks. Want to make the gun point higher or lower? You can go for an arched or flat mainspring housing, and even different beavertails to change the way the gun points even more. These days we're seeing an ever-increasing number of auto pistols offer interchangeable backstraps as a feature, but all they're doing is giving us (part of) what the 1911 has had for decades.